228 
POPULAR HISTOEY OF BIRDS. 
which a woman had tamed^ having reared them from nest- 
lings. The late Earl of Derby^ in the ' Proceedings of the 
Zoological Society^ for Eebruary 23^ 1847, communicated 
some observations on the domestic habits of these birds. 
He found the Australian Emu to be strictly monogamous^ 
the male too not approving any other female but the- fa- 
voured one coming near the nest. The South American 
Emus [Rhea), on the contrary, are polygamous; the male 
selects the place for the nest^ and forms it ; he collects to- 
gether the eggs and sits on them. Whether this be the 
habit of the bird in a state of nature or not, it is the habit 
of it as observed in the large enclosures at Knowsley, in 
Lancashire. The late Earl adds that the Bheaj in collecting 
together the eggs of his most unmatronly mates, inserted 
the beak between the egg and the ground and rolled it 
along, by the assistance of his long neck, exactly in the 
way that a boy would roll a cricket-ball along by the aid of 
a long stick with a hooked end to it."^^ 
It was at one time believed that the eggs of ostriches 
were hatched by the warmth of the sun"^; but correct ob- 
servation has shown that the parent bird forms a rough 
* " Hast thou expell'd the mother from thy breast. 
And to the desert's mercies left thy nest ?" 
